I like your choice of adjective, byzantine. Other adjectives to describe what they really built here - obtuse: annoyingly insensitive, slow, or difficult to understand, especially deliberately so; & vacuous: having or showing a lack of thought or intelligence; mindless.
I think you nailed it on the head here. The deception, lies, lack of answers (and when given, nothing but bread crumbs at that).
Quoting myself from this post should adequately explain why I am feeling the same bout the Steemit Scam and why I am losing interest here while keeping my fingers and toes crossed for #calibrae.

Speaking as a Red Fish:

1. Any incentive for me to invest is gone due to abuse of power witnessed since joining.
2. More time is spent researching, investigating, and trying to figure things out than is creating actual content beyond said research and investigation (and for me, I do not draw the attention and collaboration as ones done by accounts such as yourself [well deserved, in most cases]). I really miss those first couple days, when I didn't have a clue (not that I'm any more "clued in" now).
3. Though a transparent blockchain, it is quite complicated and seems to grow more complex by the day (with little in the way of official answers aside from having to try and dig it up in others' steemit posts). Although all the info is supposedly there, it is not that easy to find or even know where to begin looking.
4. Nothing, to my knowledge, is being done to address the issue of the few let in early who now dominate the platform (releasing to a few while it was all still on the "down-low"). Despite it's intention(s), it does have the affect of helping newcomers feel as if they own no shoes and are in a race they are forced to wear weights in (while others own brand new running shoes and are given protein bars).
5. We can not call steemit "a game" without it being expressly stated when signing up. A promise of "authors get paid for their content" is misleading if any defence of it being a game can be justified. It's either a source of a revenue stream ("get paid") or a game ("gamble, for entertainment purposes only").
6. And let us not forget the sloppiness of the sign up process itself. No guards or protections for minors, now even more extensive wait time for official start ups (or trusting a service with your new password/keys if having an existing member purchase a new account)....
   7).... And on and on (and I could go on, yet stretching into more personal perception and beliefs that would add little to the conversation's main topic).
   The bread crumb answers given so far, though appreciated, do little to strengthen this Red Fish's trust in the platform.
   
   And good 'ol Ned's 2 answers to the small handful of legitimate questions/concerns.... about as useful as tits on a bull.
   
   
   
   I've only been here less than 2 months, and spotted the hocus-pocus fkry right away. Dare to call any of it out, best be prepared for an attack. In my experience, only the guilty attack when being questioned or criticized (they view criticism as a put down rather than a constructive means of communication for change - HERE IS YOU SIGN!).